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Advise on luring a swarm

I have built my first hive, total cost 40ish dollars, But am trying to do this on no budget. I was scrounging materials for the first hive and finally gave in and bought the 1X12's, wire cloth and a good quality primer and paint. So I think I was about 50% successful. I am now on the look out for materials for my second hive.
In the mean time I am not going to get very far at all without bees. My first plan is to lure bees to my hive. Any suggestions on how to make a hive more appealing? I have seen lemmon grass oil mentioned. I have also read quite a bit on lure boxes or nuc hives. using cobs of brood, smashing up old queens in alcohol etc. Remember I don't have bees, I also don't have a nuc hive. I do have a top bar with a follow board that allows me to reduce the effective space of the hive. I don't have a lot of hope in finding a swarm but no reason not to maximize my chances. I can't get bees til next spring anyway and most of the bees will be swarming around here by then. Never know I might get lucky and have one move in. then I have something to work with to populate my other hives and makes improving a matter of the cost of a queen rather than a whole nuc or package.

Re: Advise on luring a swarm

All,

What is the correct procedure / ratio to use Lemongrass essential oil? For a bait hive, Do I just drop a few drops inside the hive? Or dilute with water to a set ratio and put into a small sprayer to treat the inside of the bait hive?

Re: Advise on luring a swarm

As far as building hives goes, it is FAR cheaper to buy them than to build them. I built 2 hives using new wood that I bought from Home Depot and it cost about $40. You can buy unassembled hives from Humble Abodes for about $10. and even w/ the shipping it will cost you less time and $$. Also you can get swarm lures on ebay from bjornbee that smell like lemongrass oil and worked for me. check out this vid on you tube on how to build a swarm trap for (almost) free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvmZG2tuELY GOOD LUCK, o